You Need Help
by cggpuppy
Summary: Sabo is in love with his best friend. The problem is, he has no idea what to do about his feelings. The Straw Hat pirates, confident on their romance skills after their success with their newest couple, give their eager (if not somewhat flawed) advice. Sequel to I Need Help, One-shot, Sabo/Koala pairing, and more general silliness.


**So, lovely readers! Welcome to book two of the 'need help' Trilogy! Yep, I'm already planning the third one. It won't be a one-shot, though.**

 **Anyway, I don't own One Piece, but you probably already guessed that. Oda owns it, but you probably guessed that too. But that's not important- there's a story to read!**

 **You Need Help**

It all started when the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army realized he was in love with his best friend.

Actually, he had figured out he was in love long before the point of time in which our story takes place. The problem was, he had no idea how to react to his new feelings. He didn't want to ruin the friendship that he had with her, but every minute he spent with her made it increasingly more difficult to keep his feelings hidden. And so he waited, painfully, for when the moment would arise, when he would finally confess his feelings. Even so, he couldn't help trying to find ways to be near her. She was like a bright, cheery light, and he was a moth, unable to stay away from her enchanting smile.

And then he had gotten a call from his little brother.

"Sabo," the rubber boy said, and his big brother senses had immediately gone off at the worried tone in Luffy's voice. "I think I might die."

That was all he had to say to get Sabo over to the ship as fast as he could, only to learn that his little brother was in love. He had wanted to say something to Luffy, something along the lines of _I understand how you feel, I'm in love too and haven't the slightest idea what to do about it either,_ but instead he had leaned against the railing of the Thousand Sunny, looking out over the waves, a Transponder Snail in his gloved hands, and tried to figure out who would know what to do. Not just for Luffy, for both of them.

Without him realizing it, his fingers were moving over the buttons, and he didn't realize who he was calling until her voice sounded through the receiver. "Hello?"

"Koala, it's me," Sabo said, trying to calm the sudden acceleration in his heartbeat when he heard her voice. "I think I might die."

Eventually, it had all worked out, though. With Robin's advice, the captain of the Straw Hat pirates had confessed his love to his navigator, and there had been a party in celebration of the new couple. Everyone was in high spirits (save for the cook, who was crying while cooking three different meat-centered dishes at the same time) and Sabo was sitting next to Robin on the grassy lawn of the deck, a cup of some of the pirate crew's best sake in his hand. Their swordsman had hauled it out of the storage, claiming that now was as good a time as ever to open it up, and everyone else agreed wholeheartedly.

"By the way," Sabo said, looking down into his untouched drink. He swallowed nervously, and Robin raised her eyebrows, curious. "I...heard you give love advice?"

The archeologist smiled. "Koala?"

Sabo looked at Robin, surprise flitting across his face. Had he really been that obvious? "Yeah," he said, feeling a tint of warmth coloring his cheeks. "How did you-"

Robin put a finger over her lips, quieting him. "Well..." she said, "here's what I'd suggest..."

~oOo~

"Eh?" Luffy said, eyes wide. "Sabo's in love, too?"

Sabo jerked away from his little brother, face turning red. "Luffy!" he hissed. But it was too late. The attention of the others had already been caught. They were all looking at him, the new information and the alcohol increasing their euphoria even more.

"Well, who is it?" Nami asked, smiling in a way that seemed almost cat-like. Sanji's head poked out of the kitchen, and although his eyes were still red and puffy, he had stopped crying. Carrying teetering piles of food, he walked down the stairs to the grass and sat down with the rest of the group. Brook gave him a sympathetic pat on the back, to which the cook shot him a murderous glare that sent shivers down the skeleton's exposed spine.

"It's...well..." Sabo tried to ignore the way their curious glances made his face turn even redder. He shifted uncomfortably. "It's Koala," he blurted out. "I think I'm in love with Koala."

This was met with blank stares from most of the crew.

"Koala?" Chopper asked curiously, his hooves clasped around a cup of some sort of sweetened juice. The straw hat pirates knew better than to let Chopper touch an alcoholic beverage. "You're in love with a koala?"

"Not _a_ koala," Robin corrected. "Her name is Koala. She's Sabo's friend. She was in Dressrosa with us, but the only people who actually got to meet her were myself and Usopp."

"I was half dead, though," Usopp said. "I only remember pain, and a couple other things."

"I'm sure she's a goddess," Sanji said, his previous heartbreak momentarily forgotten as he fished a cigarette out of his suit jacket. "What does she look like?"

"She's...well...she's kind of short," Sabo said. Pretty soon, the entire crew was gathered around him, asking questions, some that he decided would be best not to answer (these were mainly asked by Brook). The only one who didn't contribute to the gathering was the swordsman, who watched them impassively as he sat next to several bottles and barrels, several of them already empty, although he watched them with barely concealed interest.

"Shishishi!" Luffy chuckled, grinning widely. "So," he said, crossing his legs and grinning brightly. "It looks like you need help."

~oOo~

"Sabo!" Koala called, knocking on the Revolutionary's door. She frowned when there was no answer on the other side. "Sabo, it's time to wake up!" There was still no answer. Koala sighed, tapping her foot against the floor, listening. "If I have to drag him out of bed one more time," she growled, opening the door and stepping into the room.

There was no one there.

Koala's eyes instantly narrowed. He had definitely been in the room, the blankets were rumpled and pushed to one side. Grumbling, she fixed the covers, smoothing out the wrinkles in the sheets more out of habit than anything else. Sabo always forgot to clean, despite her constant prompting, so she usually did it for him, even though she had threatened more than once that one day she would stop and let him take responsibility for his mess. Granted, he was getting better at picking up after himself. She no longer found odd bits of clothing strewn carelessly across the floor anymore.

Even so, he never got up early. That was a constant rule for him, a rule he practically never broke unless there was something important going on. For him to be awake, even before she was...that was practically unheard of. Something very important must have happened.

Stepping lightly down the stone steps, she was about to head for the headquarters to see if the Chief of Staff was already in his office when she caught the faint scent of smoke. Curious, Koala turned in the direction of the dining hall, where the scent seemed to be originating from. When she stepped into the empty room, the thick haze of grey smoke stung her eyes and nose, but she ignored it, opening the door to the kitchen and coughing as a large cloud of smoke billowed from the doorway. She could barely see, but she could hear someone shuffling through the kitchen. "Who's there?" She called, fists raised just in case she needed to fight.

"Koala?" A tall figure stepped through the smoke, and she blinked, lowering her fists when she saw Sabo standing in front of her. He looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," she replied, peering into the kitchen behind him. It was a mess. There was a blackened pan full of...something sitting on the counter, steadily billowing smoke. What looked like half the kitchen's supply of mixing bowls and spoons were piled together in a corner, dripping a goopy brown substance that was splattered on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling-how did he even get it on the ceiling? Sabo glanced nervously to the side, and she noticed that the brown substance was all over his hands, the colorful apron he had adorned, and some of it was even stuck in his hair.

"I was...well...I was trying to make breakfast..." Sabo mumbled. Koala's eyes widened in surprise. "And...I accidentally set fire to pretty much everything."

Internally, Sabo was cursing himself over and over again. His plan had failed. Miserably. The cook had suggested that he should try and impress her by cooking or something else. Sabo, unable to supply another idea for the something else, had chosen to try his hand at cooking. Which, needless to say, had not gone very well. The sniper had suggested making something that she would like, and the reindeer doctor had enthusiastically agreed, claiming that she would probably like something sweet. Apparently chocolate pudding was not only easy to spill everywhere, but was flammable. What would she think? Should he still try and serve it, and hope that only the top had burned? Were you even supposed to cook pudding in the first place?

 _Think,_ Sabo told himself. His hands felt sweaty underneath his gloves. _What else did they say? What can I do?_

The musician had suggested...no. He wasn't even going to try the skeleton's suggestion. The swordsman? He had only grunted and said that he wouldn't know anything about love, but Sabo had noticed the way his eyes shifted away when he spoke. Their cyborg shipwright had suggested to act manly, but standing in a smoking kitchen, covered in chocolate mess and wearing a bright pink apron (it was the only one he could find) didn't exactly seem like the best situation to suddenly act manly. Not to mention he hadn't asked for a criteria of manliness to follow by, so he couldn't really do that. Nami had said something along the lines of "just kiss her. And don't forget the tongue." Sabo wasn't exactly sure that was the best advice he could have gotten. Sure, it might have worked in the case of his brother, but he had a sneaking suspicion that taking her advice would only make this much, much worse. Then again, maybe it wouldn't...

But only as a last resort.

Robin. She knew Koala best out of the crew. She was also the one who had agreed with the 'do something to impress her and make her feel special' group. And that hadn't exactly turned out well. He tried to think back, and then he remembered the last part of the conversation, his little brother's piece of advice.

~oOo~

"Or you could just be honest about your feelings," Luffy had said, grabbing a plate of meat and shoving it in his face while he talked. "That's what Robin told me to do. I didn't really manage to say anything, though. Nami kissed me before I could tell her my feelings." At this, Sanji had barely managed to suppress a small, heartbroken sob.

~oOo~

Sabo swallowed nervously, looking down into Koala's eyes. Bad idea. He was feeling even more nervous now.

"What about the cook?"

"I...well...I told them I could handle it, so they left. And besides, no one else is in the dining hall around this time."

"But that still doesn't explain why you tried cooking in the first place."

Sabo felt his breath catch in his throat. It was now or never. "I...well...I wanted to cook something...for you..." His sentence trailed off. He couldn't do this. Destroy a marine base? Easy. Fight an entire army singlehandedly? No problem. But confess his feelings to Koala? That was practically impossible. He took a deep breath. "I tried to do something...to...well..."

"You can tell me," Koala prompted. Her eyes. They were looking straight into his own. He was painfully aware of how small the gap between them had become-

"I like you," he blurted, and immediately regretted it when he saw Koala freeze. He'd messed up, he knew it. He had said it too suddenly, he should have transitioned to it somehow, but now the words had been said, so he closed his eyes, trying to fight down the rising emotions, trying to quiet his heart, which was beating so loudly in the silence that he was sure Koala could hear it. He had messed up, he'd ruined everything-

Something small and soft pressed against his cheek, and he opened his eyes as Koala stepped away from him, her lips turned upwards in a smile, a smile that it seemed he could feel, imprinted in a light kiss on his face. "You're cleaning this up," she said, turning and walking away.

Sabo stood, rooted to the spot long after she had disappeared down the hallway. He couldn't tell if his face was warm because he was blushing or because his head had literally burst into flames. After a few seconds, he turned, fumbling in his pocket for the Transponder Snail that was tucking in his coat. Leaning against the counter, he waited impatiently for someone to pick up the receiver. After what seemed like hours, someone finally answered. "Hello?" It was Robin, her voice full of mirth.

"It's me," Sabo gasped.

"Ah, Sabo! Did it work?" On the other side of the line, Sabo could hear someone shouting.

"Well, I can't cook worth squat, but I told her how I felt and she...well...kissed me..."

"Well that's good news," Robin said, and Sabo could almost hear her smile in the way her voice brightened. "By the way, we may need your help with something. There's...another love interest, you might say. A very interesting one."

"For the last time!" Zoro's distant voice could be heard. "That's not how it is!"

" You're being stubborn," said Nami. "Just admit it. We'll help you, Zoro. Just admit you love her."

"I don't," Zoro protested loudly, but the rest of the conversation faded as they moved away from the transponder snail.

"Sounds interesting," Sabo said, eyebrows raised. "But I don't understand why you'd need my help."

"We need information," Robin explained. "Information that the Revolutionary army might have."

"Well, now I'm curious. Who is this lady that your swordsman seems to have developed an attraction to?"

"Well," Robin said, voice tinged with amusement. "Have you heard of a certain swordswoman captain in the G-5 Marines and her whereabouts?"

"Actually," Sabo said, smiling widely, "I believe I have."

 **Well...take a wild guess at what book three will be about.**

 **Due to many problems, it may take a while to be created and released. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see in the third fanfiction, message me! If you become impatient and want me to start writing it sooner, you can check my profile, where I occasionally ask for help on my books. (Writers block and all that...not fun.)**

 **But until then, I hope you have a wonderful day thank you very much for reading byeeeee! :)**


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